A Revolutionary Summer with and by Joseph Ellis

Thursday

Jun 6, 2013 at 3:15 AM

PORTSMOUTH — The Music Hall’s Writers on a New England Stage series welcomes award-winning, preeminent historian Joseph J. Ellis as he discusses his revelatory portrait of a crescendo moment in American history, REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER: THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, on Tuesday, June 25. The 7:30 event includes an author presentation and on-stage interview with Virginia Prescott, host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s “Word of Mouth.” The series’ house band Dreadnaught will play live music during the one hour event presented at The Music Hall’s historic theater at 28 Chestnut Street in downtown Portsmouth.

The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers and National Book Award winner The Sphinx, Joseph J. Ellis now turns his focus to the summer of 1776 and most dramatic months of our country’s founding. Then, the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire. At the same time, the British dispatched the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic, which cruised off the coast of Staten Island in early July. The Continental Congress and the Continental Army were forced to make highly consequential decisions in reaction to events over which they had no control.

In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis weaves the political and military experiences as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front influenced outcomes on the other. REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER enlivens these familiar historical events with a freshness at once revelatory and compelling.

“In his 2010 visit, Joe Ellis dazzled us with his insight and intelligence. His gift for entertaining while informing, for peeling back the delicate layers of this nation’s history, is a true delight,” said Patricia Lynch, Executive Producer of Writers on a New England Stage. “An evening with him is not to be missed, especially as a celebration of our country’s birth on July 4,” she added.

ABOUT THE BOOK

REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER meticulously examines the most influential figures involved in the propitious American moment of Summer 1776, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General William Howe. Ellis tells an old story in a new way, colorfully describing how military and political forces came together one summer to forge a nation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joseph J. Ellis is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Founding Brothers. His portrait of Thomas Jefferson, American Sphinx, won the National Book Award. He recently retired from his position as the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College.

Book Clubs and High School Guests of The Music Hall

At each Writers event, The Music Hall hosts local high school students selected by their teachers, who come free of charge to the event and get an opportunity to meet the author. The Music Hall welcomes local book clubs attending on the night to take part in a drawing to be guests at a private backstage book signing/reception with the featured writer. For more information on how to join the Writers on a New England Stage book club list and drawing, email Associate Producer Margaret Talcott at mtalcott@themusichall.org. Interested high school and middle teachers can contact Programming Coordinator Chris Curtis at ccurtis@themusichall.org

Tickets/Signed Books

Tickets to Writers on a New England Stage: Joseph J. Ellis are $13 ($11 for members of The Music Hall and NH Public Radio). Signed copies of REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER are $24.30 (hardcover) when reserved in advance through the purchase of a voucher through The Music Hall box office. Signed books can be purchased on the evening for the full retail price of $26.95.

About Writers on a New England Stage

Writers on a New England Stage was created by executive producer Patricia Lynch, also executive director of The Music Hall, and is presented with New Hampshire Public Radio in collaboration with Yankee magazine. The series’ companion bookstore is RiverRun, in Portsmouth, NH. Since 2005, the series has spotlighted a broad range of celebrated authors including Salman Rushdie, Mitch Albom, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Dan Brown, Isabel Allende, Stephen King, Ann Patchett, E.L. Doctorow, Madeleine Albright, the late John Updike, Wally Lamb, Jodi Picoult, David McCullough, and Cokie Roberts, among many others. Each author’s presentation is followed by an interview with Virginia Prescott, host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s “Word of Mouth.” Live music is performed by the award-winning house band Dreadnaught. The live shows are rebroadcast on New Hampshire Public Radio.